by teamnasty » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:16 pm
terry, you dont "want to get into an argument or have others read our differences" then proceed to author another lengthy email doing just that. Which is fine because I unlike you welcome the debate. Angry, outspoken black men arent given the same rope in our society as "elegant, quiet" black men. McGwire was as surly as Bonds is, but was largely given a pass by the mainstream media, another fact. Mantle's rookie card commands a much higher price than Mays' does, even though Mays had the longer, better career. What accounts for this? We have come very far on race, but not to the point of all of us being actually colorblind. Honest, nonracist people can find fault with Bonds, but read the hate mail he's getting before you assume that's the entirety of the criticism. And we do look fondly upon Gaylord Perry's "cheating" and frown upon Bonds and its fair game to ask why. And finally its fair to call into question this assumption that steroids, illegal by society's rules but not baseball's at the time, really provides any meaninful advantage at all regardless of their legality. Bonds supposedly missed much of the 1999 season because he overdeveloped and tore muscles as a result of roid use. It takes away even if it gives. His greatness as a player remains unchallenged by any serious analysis. His smallness as a person is really a separate question altogether, but to look up to him for some moral guidance, as some type of role model, really is a defect on his critics' part part, not Bonds'. Let your underpaid schoolteachers be your role models, not physically gifted jocks, whatever their color.